I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1122 

To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry 

out a housing choice voucher mobility demonstration to encourage families receiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty areas 

and expand access to opportunity areas. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 8, 2019 

Mr. CLEAVER (for himself and Mr. DUFFY) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry out a housing choice voucher mobility 

demonstration to encourage families receiving such 

voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty areas and 

expand access to opportunity areas. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Housing Choice Vouch5 er Mobility Demonstration Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER MOBILITY DEMON2 STRATION. 

3 (a) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of Housing and 

4 Urban Development (in this section referred to as the 

5 ‘‘Secretary’’) may carry out a mobility demonstration pro6 gram to enable public housing agencies to administer 

7 housing choice voucher assistance under section 8(o) of 

8 the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 

9 1437f(o)) in a manner designed to encourage families re10 ceiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty 

11 areas and expand access to opportunity areas. 

12 (b) SELECTION OF PHAS.— 

13 (1) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary shall es14 tablish requirements for public housing agencies to 

15 participate in the demonstration program under this 

16 section, which shall provide that the following public 

17 housing agencies may participate: 

18 (A) Public housing agencies that to19 gether— 

20 (i) serve areas with high concentra21 tions of holders of rental assistance vouch22 ers under section 8(o) of the United States 

23 Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) 

24 in poor, low-opportunity neighborhoods; 

25 and 


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1 (ii) have an adequate number of mod2 erately priced rental units in higher-oppor3 tunity areas. 

4 (B) Planned consortia or partial consortia 

5 of public housing agencies that— 

6 (i) include at least one agency with a 

7 high-performing Family Self-Sufficiency 

8 (FSS) program; and 

9 (ii) will enable participating families 

10 to continue in such program if they relo11 cate to the jurisdiction served by any other 

12 agency of the consortium. 

13 (C) Planned consortia or partial consortia 

14 of public housing agencies that— 

15 (i) serve jurisdictions within a single 

16 region; 

17 (ii) include one or more small agen18 cies; and 

19 (iii) will consolidate mobility focused 

20 operations. 

21 (D) Such other public housing agencies as 

22 the Secretary considers appropriate. 

23 (2) SELECTION CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall 

24 establish competitive selection criteria for public 

25 housing agencies eligible under paragraph (1) to 


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1 participate in the demonstration program under this 

2 section. 

3 (3) RANDOM SELECTION OF FAMILIES.—The 

4 Secretary may require participating agencies to use 

5 a randomized selection process to select among the 

6 families eligible to receive mobility assistance under 

7 the demonstration program. 

8 (c) REGIONAL HOUSING MOBILITY PLAN.—The Sec9 retary shall require each public housing agency applying 

10 to participate in the demonstration program under this 

11 section to submit a Regional Housing Mobility Plan (in 

12 this section referred to as a ‘‘Plan’’), which shall— 

13 (1) identify the public housing agencies that 

14 will participate under the Plan and the number of 

15 vouchers each participating agency will make avail16 able out of their existing programs in connection 

17 with the demonstration; 

18 (2) identify any community-based organizations, 

19 nonprofit organizations, businesses, and other enti20 ties that will participate under the Plan and describe 

21 the commitments for such participation made by 

22 each such entity; 

23 (3) identify any waivers or alternative require24 ments requested for the execution of the Plan; 


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1 (4) identify any specific actions that the public 

2 housing agencies and other entities will undertake to 

3 accomplish the goals of the demonstration, which 

4 shall include a comprehensive approach to enable a 

5 successful transition to opportunity areas and may 

6 include counseling and continued support for fami7 lies; 

8 (5) specify the criteria that the public housing 

9 agencies would use to identify opportunity areas 

10 under the plan; 

11 (6) provide for establishment of priority and 

12 preferences for participating families, including a 

13 preference for families with young children, as such 

14 term is defined by the Secretary, based on regional 

15 housing needs and priorities; and 

16 (7) comply with any other requirements estab17 lished by the Secretary. 

18 (d) FUNDING FOR MOBILITY-RELATED SERVICES.— 

19 (1) USE OF ADMINISTRATIVE FEES.—Public 

20 housing agencies participating in the demonstration 

21 program under this section may use administrative 

22 fees under section 8(q) of the United States Housing 

23 Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(q)), their administra24 tive fee reserves, and funding from private entities 

25 to provide mobility-related services in connection 


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1 with the demonstration program, including services 

2 such as counseling, portability coordination, landlord 

3 outreach, security deposits, and administrative ac4 tivities associated with establishing and operating re5 gional mobility programs. 

6 (2) USE OF HOUSING ASSISTANCE FUNDS.— 

7 Public housing agencies participating in the dem8 onstration under this section may use housing as9 sistance payments funds under section 8(o) of the 

10 United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 

11 1437f(o)) for security deposits if necessary to enable 

12 families to lease units with vouchers in designated 

13 opportunity areas. 

14 (e) WAIVERS; ALTERNATIVE REQUIREMENTS.— 

15 (1) WAIVERS.—To allow for public housing 

16 agencies to implement and administer their Regional 

17 Housing Mobility Plans, the Secretary may waive or 

18 specify alternative requirements for the following 

19 provisions of the United States Housing Act of 

20 1937: 

21 (A) Sections 8(o)(7)(A) and 8(o)(13)(E)(i) 

22 (relating to the term of a lease and mobility re23 quirements). 

24 (B) Section 8(o)(13)(C)(i) (relating to the 

25 public housing plan for an agency). 


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1 (C) Section 8(r)(2) (relating to the respon2 sibility of a public housing agency to administer 

3 ported assistance). 

4 (2) ALTERNATIVE REQUIREMENTS.—The Sec5 retary shall provide additional authority for public 

6 housing agencies in a selected region to form a con7 sortium that has a single housing choice voucher 

8 funding contract, or to enter into a partial consor9 tium to operate all or portions of the Regional Hous10 ing Mobility Plan, including agencies participating in 

11 the Moving To Work Demonstration program. 

12 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Any waiver or alter13 native requirements pursuant to this subsection shall 

14 not take effect before the expiration of the 10-day 

15 period beginning upon publication of notice of such 

16 waiver or alternative requirement in the Federal 

17 Register. 

18 (f) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary may imple19 ment the demonstration, including its terms, procedures, 

20 requirements, and conditions, by notice. 

21 (g) EVALUATION.—Not later than 5 years after im22 plementation of the regional housing mobility programs 

23 under the demonstration program under this section, the 

24 Secretary shall submit to the Congress and publish in the 

25 Federal Register a report evaluating the effectiveness of 


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1 the strategies pursued under the demonstration, subject 

2 to the availability of funding to conduct the evaluation. 

3 Through official websites and other methods, the Sec4 retary shall disseminate interim findings as they become 

5 available, and shall, if promising strategies are identified, 

6 notify the Congress of the amount of funds that would 

7 be required to expand the testing of these strategies in 

8 additional types of public housing agencies and housing 

9 markets. 

Æ 


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